"There goes the neighborhood...one neighbor at a time."
— Tagline
The Vagrant is a 1992 horror comedy directed by Chris Walas and produced by Mel Brooks.
Well-to-do yuppie Graham Krakowski (Bill Paxton) has just moved into a new house, where he discovers a filthy, disgusting homeless man (Marshall Bell) has been helping himself to the building's utilities. Graham succeeds in getting the vagrant arrested, but people around him start to turn up dead. The neurotic Graham worries that the vagrant is responsible, then begins to suspect that he himself is the murderer, committing the crimes in his sleep. Unfortunately for Graham, the police also believe he's the murderer...
No relation to the video game of the same name.
This film contains examples of:
- Eye Scream: The Vagrant has a dead eye, which he loses when he falls into a cactus patch.
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Lt. Barfuss is impaled on a chair.
- Police Are Useless: Played straight for most of the film, but averted at the last second when Barfuss' partner fatally wounds the Vagrant.
- The Reveal: The Vagrant is a disgraced psychology professor trying to prove his theories true by using Graham as a guinea pig.
- Sliding Scale of Comedy and Horror: Leans more towards comedy, though the scare sequences are played straight.
- Tired of Running: Graham finally decides to face off with the Vagrant at the end.
